The pledge by the powerful English General Synod, which leads the mother church for Anglicans worldwide, follows a similar push by the Catholic Church last month, when Pope Francis released a major encyclical that warned climate change has grave implications and fossil fuel technology must be replaced.

It comes as the Abbott government has come under fire for directing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to stop investing in wind and small-scale solar projects, throwing doubt on its commitment to renewable energy.

There are an estimated 3.5 million Anglicans in Australia.

The General Synod approves legislation affecting the entire Church of England. Outside England, each diocese can adopt its own policies on matters such as climate change, however the synod's motions are considered influential.

At a meeting on Monday in York, Bishop of Salisbury Nicholas Holtam said in the last 150 years humans have burned fossil fuels "that took one billion years to lay down in the Earth".

"The Earth cannot sustain this level of consumption … the science, economics and politics all point in the same direction," he said.

The synod agreed urgent action is needed to tackle climate change and global warming disproportionately affected the world's poorest.

It urged world leaders to seek to limit the global rise in average temperatures to no more than two degrees – the internationally agreed threshold above which severe climate change impacts would result.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the church must look outwards to tackle climate change.

"We have unrivalled access to networks around the world. How are we going to use them and look beyond our own boundaries as the Church of England to draw in the resources of the whole Communion?" he said.

Representatives from more than 190 nations will gather in Paris from late November to hash out a new global agreement on reducing emissions beyond 2020.

On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his government does not get enough credit for its emissions reduction policies compared to the "airy-fairy" commitments of other countries, and revealed Australia will not announce its climate targets until August.

Australia is the only developed country that has not yet indicated the emissions reductions it plans to adopt.

The General Synod urged all governments to forge long-term pathways to a low carbon future, supported by meaningful shorter-term pledges from all major carbon-emitting nations.

It encouraged parishes and dioceses to pray and fast for climate justice on the first day of each month, ahead of the Paris talks, adding God's creation was holy and "we are called to protect the earth now and for the future".

The Church of England leaders also overwhelmingly supported a new climate change investment policy adopted in May, which excludes two categories of companies from the church's funding - those that derive more than 10 per cent of their revenues from the extraction of thermal coal, and those that produce oil from tar sands.

Bishop of Manchester David Walker said climate change calls for an urgent response from all of us "individually, institutionally, nationally and internationally. And that includes investors".

In a piece for Fairfax Media on Sunday, the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Primate of Australia, Philip Freier, foreshadowed the motions and offered support.

Writing with Archbishop of Anglican Church of South Africa, Thabo Cecil Makgoba, they said the two countries were on the front lines of climate change, and "we have a moral responsibility to act".

"Climate change is about more than the political and economic debate that all too often dominates the headlines. Climate change is first and foremost a social and moral concern," they wrote.

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